Biden to Visit Israel Amid Fears Of Spiraling Conflict

He expressed hope to be able to ensure the Israeli military has what it needs as it fights a deepening war against Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The trip by Army General Michael "Erik" Kurilla, head of US Central Command, is the latest by a senior US official to Israel ahead of an expected ground assault by Israel's military in Gaza.

The US military is increasing its firepower in the region, aiming to prevent Iran and other Iran-backed groups from getting involved in the conflict as international fears of a wider, regional war grow.

The Pentagon is also rushing weaponry, including air defenses and munitions, to Israel.

"I'm here to ensure Israel has what it needs to defend itself, particularly focused on avoiding other parties expanding the conflict," Kurilla told Reuters, which is traveling with him, in brief remarks before landing.

A US official told Reuters Kurilla was scheduled to hold high-level meetings with Israel's military leadership, ensuring a clear understanding of the close US ally's defense requirements.

Kurilla was also expected to outline US military support aimed at avoiding an expansion of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Washington has deployed an aircraft carrier strike group to the eastern Mediterranean and is sending another carrier to the region in the coming days, moves the Biden administration says are meant as a deterrent, not a provocation.

The US already has a network of bases in the Middle East with troops, fighter aircraft and warships.

The United States has also told some troops, potentially 2,000, to be ready to deploy within 24 hours if notified - instead of the usual 96 hours - and could include units that provide assistance like medical aid if needed, a US official said on Monday.

Report by Reuters

Dariush Mehrjui and Vahideh Mohammadifar were stabbed to death at their villa near Tehran Saturday. Bodies were discovered by their daughter, Mona Mehrjui, the same evening. 

The revered eighty-three-year-old director refrained from engaging in politics for many years. However, over the past year, he subtly expressed support for the ongoing Woman, Life, Freedom anti-regime movement. This support is speculated to be a possible reason for him being targeted by the state, according to some allegations.

Mehrjoui had also condoled dissident soccer legends Ali Daei and Ali Karimi, and Elnaz Rekabi, a climber who was one the first to ditch her hijab in an international competition, in a handwritten letter he published on Instagram at the height of the protests last year for “the catastrophic massacre of innocent teenagers and youth”.

BBC’s Persian channel on Sunday also aired excerpts of an unfinished documentary about Mehrjui’s life by Hassan Solhjou, a filmmaker and a senior producer of BBC World Service, in which he was expressing his opposition to compulsory hijab by removing his wife’s headscarf. In another scene, he said he was tired of “four decades of deceit”, referring to the 44 years of Islamic rule in Iran. 

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Iranian media, politicians and activists have extensively pointed out the similarity between the double murders and the killings of tens of dissident politicians, writers, activists, and even academics over a period of at least two years that came to be known as “chain murders” in the late 90s. 

“The news of Dariush Mehrjui and his wife’s murders was an immediate reminder of the serial murders in the 1990s, particularly the murders of Dariush Forouhar and his wife [Parvaneh Eskandari], which bore dire consequences [for the country],” Jomhouri Eslami wrote Monday in an editorial entitled “Take The Karaj Murder Seriously”. 

Forouhar, who was the leader of the pan-Iranist Nation Party of Iran, and his wife Parvaneh met a brutal end when they were repeatedly stabbed at their Tehran home in November 1998. These heinous killings triggered widespread national outrage and were promptly linked to dozens of other unsolved murders of intellectuals by both the public and the reformist media.

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his supporters blamed “foreign enemies” including Israel for the murders of Forouhar and his wife but public demand for answers eventually led to the reformist government of President Mohammad Khatami to take action to find the culprits. 

At Khatami's insistence, a three-member investigative team was formed, and it ultimately confirmed suspicions that the intelligence ministry was directly involved in the killings. 

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The ministry issued an unprecedented statement on January 4, 1999, which blamed “rogue” agents for four of the killings while calling the murders “despicable and abhorrent” and the minister, Ghorban-Ali Dorri-Najafabadi, favored by Khamenei who had still not consolidated his power as Supreme Leader, was replaced with the relatively moderate Ali Younesi. 

The chain murders and the scope of the conspiracy are still shrouded in mystery. Intelligence agents arrested for the killing were tried behind closed doors by a military court and Saeed Emami, a deputy minister who allegedly masterminded the murders was said to have committed suicide in prison. 

The Jomhouri Eslami newspaper, which serves as a mouthpiece for moderate traditionalist clerics and holds the distinction of being the Islamic Republic's oldest newspaper, called upon the authorities not to prematurely conclude their investigations, even if they discover that theft played a role in the incident.

“One should not ignore the possibility that theft could have been used as a cover for the real goal and a group planned and carried out the theft through several intermediaries as a cover up,” the newspaper warned. 

Officials including President Ebrahim Raisi and Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei have ordered the case to be promptly investigated and a police spokesman has said that so far seven have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the double murders. 

Putin who spoke with Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi and leading Arab powers in an attempt to secure a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas.

Raisi was quoted as telling Putin that supporting the Palestinians is Iran's foreign policy priority, but the "resistance" groups make their own independent decisions, Iranian state media reported.

They quoted Raisi as also telling the Russian president: "There is a possibility of the conflict between Israel and Palestinians expanding to other fronts."

Iran’s clerical rulers, who have supported militant Arab groups for four decades with money, weapons and training, celebrated the Hamas attack on Israel and the killing of over 1,400 Israelis. The United States has warned Tehran not to get directly involved, as it has sent a powerful naval task force to the Eastern Mediterranean to deter Iran’s proxy the Hezbollah from opening a northern front against Israel.

Russia, which has relationships with Iran, Hamas, major Arab powers as well as with the Palestinians and with Israel, has repeatedly said the United States and the West have ignored the need for an independent Palestinian state within 1967 borders.

Russia’s relations with the West have significantly worsened after it invaded Ukraine last year trying to replace the government in Kyiv and annex large parts of the country.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Naser Kanaani said during his Monday press conference that “the actions taken by the resistance front were within their rights, in response to the Zionist crimes against Palestinians.” 

Kanaani held photos of the aftermath of the bombing on Gaza which followed the infiltration of militants by air, land and sea, slaughtering hundreds of civilians, and reiterated Tehran’s warning that if the offensive on the enclave continues, the situation could escalate beyond control, “jeopardizing international peace and security.” 

However, when he was directly asked about Iran engaging in the war in case of Israel's ground offensive in Gaza, Kanaani dodged a tangible response and only said that Hamas can defend itself. Thousands of Hamas operatives infiltrated Israel by land, air and sea on October 7, massacring hundreds of civilians and kidnapping at least 199 into Gaza, including women and children. 

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Kanaani said that the actions “cannot be limited to a single front,” and that Israelis "expose themselves to all sides that consider themselves committed to supporting the Palestinian people," suggesting its proxies on Israel's Lebanese and Syrian borders will once again be mobilized. On Sunday, Hezbollah began its most active day of attacks against Israel since the war began as tensions simmered and 28 towns and villages in Israel were subsequently evacuated. 

Kanaani claimed that the Palestinian resistance represents the Palestinian nation against Israel, a statement that directly contradicts remarks by Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the State of Palestine and the Palestinian National Authority. Abbas criticized Hamas on Sunday but then quickly rescinded the comment after alleged pressure from Hamas which controls the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian news agency WAFA initially quoted Abbas telling Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro that Hamas’ policies and actions “do not represent the Palestinian people", the Palestine Liberation Organization the only legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. The reference to Hamas was later removed, the statement only claiming "the PLO is the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, and not the policies of any other organization.” 

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Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who arrived back in Iran after a tour of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Qatar Monday, has been equally threatening in his language, warning of a “huge earthquake” in Israel if airstrikes continue on the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, the regime continues to deny its being behind the war declared by Hamas on October 7.

Amir-Abdollahian met with leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad during his trips to gain accurate intelligence on the status of Hamas on the “battleground,” the Iranian diplomat said. Hamas has reassured Iran that it has the “necessary equipment” to confront Israel, not surprising after years of being funded at least $100m annually in addition to military and logistical support. 

After his meeting with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah over the weekend, Amir-Abdollahian said “I know about the scenarios that Hezbollah has put in place. Any step the resistance will take will cause a huge earthquake in the Zionist entity.” Hezbollah, the biggest of Iran's proxies, garners at least $700m a year in funding, and is known to have a far greater arsenal at its fingertips thanks to regime support, which the group showcased just weeks ago at a military exhibitionfor the media.

The regime terms Israel "the Zionist entity" or "Zionist regime" and the "resistance" front or axis is the term to describe Iran's logistic, financial and intelligence support for Palestinian terrorist groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad. It also supports proxies on Israel's other borders, Iran and Lebanon, in addition to several others around the region. 

Amir-Abdollahian is scheduled to travel to Saudi Arabia for an urgent open-ended extraordinary meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Wednesday to address the escalating war. The meeting was called by Riyadh, which until the war broke out was teetering ever closer to a normalization deal with Israel which Iran had vocally opposed, leading analysts to suggest the war was orchestrated to debilitate the talks. 

While Iran tries to make it look like it is pursuing diplomatic means to end the crisis, the Islamic Republic’s authorities continue threatening Israel with destruction and are not shy about their military and intelligence support for Hamas. Echoing similar sentiments by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Revolutionary Guard commander-in-chief Hossein Salami said Monday that the new Gaza war is “the first phase of the impending collapse of the Zionist regime.”

Iran sent a veiled warning through its UN mission on Saturday against Israel's potential ground invasion of Gaza. The Iranian message stressed that it does not want further escalation, but warned, "If the Israeli apartheid’s war crimes and genocide are not halted immediately, the situation could spiral out of control and ricochet far-reaching consequences".

Prominent lawyer and rights defendant Nasrin Sotoudeh raised questions about the potential political motive behind the murder, calling for a referendum to establish a stable government. Mehrjui was notorious for his anti-regime views with suspicions laying at the door of the regime's own security apparatus.

She pointed out that no matter who the culprits, the current government appears incapable of ensuring its citizens' security.

According to Faraz Daily news website, the perpetrators cut the throats of the pair and broke their arms and legs. Mehrjui’s head was clobbered with a blunt object and his wife was almost beheaded.

Rasoul Sadr-Ameli, the spokesperson for the House of Cinema, declared a three-day period of public mourning starting from Monday to pay respects to Mehrjui. Additionally, all film projects across the nation are slated to be suspended for a day during the funeral procession for the revered director.

Renowned international actress and political activist, Golshifteh Farahani, directed a message to the Iranian authorities, referring to the punishment many have faced for speaking out against the regime over the years and the mass censorship which has only deepened since the Women, Life, Freedom protests. "How much do you torment Iranian artists," she said.

Haniyeh Tavassoli, a well-known actress who was detained during the 2021 protests, expressed her anguish with a poignant statement: "We are unfortunate. That's it. No further explanation is needed."

President Ebrahim Raisi claims to have directed a full investigation with reports indicating that seven suspects have been apprehended in connection with the murder so far.